TTG – Luxury travel news
11 Apr 2022by Charlotte Cullinan
Charlotte Cullinan
Freelance writer for TTG
A search by means of podcast charts reveals prime displays are centered on true criminal offense, comedy, activity – and progressively, vacation. These downloadable digital audio data files are listened to on-demand and have become at any time well-known during the pandemic, with investigate by Rajar, the official overall body in demand of measuring radio audiences in the British isles, showing weekly audiences growing from 12% of grownups listening to them in 2018, to 20% in 2021.
A person mainstay in The Apple Podcasts chart is The Travel Diaries, which was introduced by journalist Holly Rubenstein in July 2019, with the seventh season debuting this spring. It reaches 35,000 listeners each week throughout 160 countries.
Rubenstein says interest in podcasts has rocketed considering the fact that she started recording, explaining: “It’s the fastest expanding media medium in the globe, and podcast marketing is the fastest increasing advertising and marketing medium too.”
In every episode, she interviews a movie star about their travels, with friends which includes actors Stanley Tucci and Hugh Bonneville, explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and perfumer Jo Malone.
Listeners tend to be female and aged concerning 25 and 45, and Rubenstein believes they hear for a few critical good reasons. “First is escapism. This is calming transportive content. Next, I imagine they are intrigued in my superstar company and hearing the place they like to journey,” she describes. “Lastly, I think they are generally hunting for journey inspiration by themselves and the podcast has produced them think about areas to take a look at and destinations they might not have regarded as.”
Sharing vacation perception can assistance pick up listeners and clients (Impression: Icons8 Crew-7, Unsplash)
Strike the airwaves
Brilliantly, the greater part of podcasts are free and come as a collection, assisting safe a dependable audience. Among the the travel corporations that took to the airwaves through the Covid-19 pandemic is homeworking specialist Not Just Journey. The 1st episode of The Journey Podcast was launched in May possibly 2020, hosted by 4 of the group, which include co-founder Steve Witt.
“No 1 was travelling, so it was an prospect to continue to keep consumers’ minds active with ideas and inspiration, and to keep them engaged with us and our travel consultants,” Witt explains.
None of the hosts experienced podcasting expertise, but Witt states recording can be seemed at as a pure extension of online video contacting. Interviews are performed and recorded around online video on Zoom, and the audio file is extracted and edited in a video clip editor.
The exhibit is however functioning and the most downloaded episode focuses on Antigua, with lists of major inns and journey trend spherical-ups also proving well-known.
Whilst episodes frequently make enquiries and bookings, Witt does not perspective them as promoting as such, far more as an engagement tool. He is also adamant expenditures should not be a barrier to launching a podcast. He clarifies: “It’s extremely reasonably priced, and can be finished on a shoestring. We record on [wireless] earbuds or corded headphones and produce them all ourselves.”
The affordability of podcasts is a concept echoed by Journey Counsellors Yvonne Campbell and Marie Rowe. They labored with each other to research and launch person collection at the start of the pandemic.
Rowe suggests budgeting £15 a month for a podcast hosting system and all-around £100 an episode if experienced enhancing and output are demanded. Every single episode usually takes her close to 10 several hours to strategy and history. She explains: “There is a value, but it creates 20 minutes of information that provides genuine believability to my organization and tends to make me unique in my market. It gives a ton of inspiration to somebody I can then provide vacation to.”
Rowe’s Real Lifestyle Travel & Adventure Holiday seasons podcast released in Could 2020, showcasing action strategies in locations together with the Seychelles and Mexico. Her 12 weekly episodes have been downloaded 2,000 times.
Along with inspiring her viewers when they had been not able to journey in the course of the pandemic, they go on to be downloaded by new listeners and are a useful gross sales device. Rowe clarifies: “My podcasts are purely strategic, as they are about the places I want to promote extra of. I wished a bank of sources that I can send to individuals when they enquire, and they definitely seal the offer.”
In 2020 fellow Journey Counsellor Campbell created Otherworld Journey: The Bucket Listing Podcast, and in 2021 she made Lifestyle in Barbados: A Calendar year on a Paradise Island, which charts her adventures living on the island.
The 26 weekly episodes from the 2nd sequence have strike 10,000 downloads, and exhibits concentrating on meals and the Barbados Welcome Stamp working visa are usually listened to.
Prior to they begun recording, Rowe and Campbell invested in podcast coaching from specialist Podknows Podcasting, and founder Neal Veglio went on to edit and create both equally their podcasts.
Campbell clarifies: “A large amount of my episodes in Barbados have been recorded on area, keeping my cellular phone as a microphone. Neal extracted the suitable bits, cleaned them up and built it audio like a Netflix documentary.”
Visitor visual appeal
Like lots of podcast hosts, Campbell and Rowe speak to attendees in every single episode, like fellow vacation specialists, customers, suppliers and market colleagues.
Incorporating at least two voices is essential, clarifies Gary Gumbleton, the founder and creative director of electronic company Capital Information. He states: “Having 1 individual talking doesn’t do the job as very well. Folks want to experience as even though they’ve stumbled across a conversation, just about as if they are eavesdropping. So you want to have a discussion, discussion or banter, as folks will engage with that a great deal more.”
Gumbleton’s crew host, create and edit podcasts for clientele, and he endorses retaining episodes involving 25 and 30 minutes long. He also implies working with every display to create “a material cascade” of at least 30 more parts of material. “If you did it over Zoom, just take the video recording and add it to your YouTube channel, and make 30 next trailers to use on social media. You can use a web page like Rev.com to simply transcribe it into a blog. Use it for Tweets, and make graphic assets to use on social.”
Listeners normally access episodes through podcast platforms this sort of as Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but Gumbleton also advises brokers to host it on their website, and immediate people there.
“If you send individuals to Spotify, you have misplaced them,” he suggests. “If your aim is to provide a vacation and you have an episode on Antigua, then host that on a committed Antigua web site on your web page, and encompass it with phone calls to motion.”
In 2021, Superstar Cruises launched its Conversations with Superstar podcast for brokers, with new written content introduced each individual 4 to six months. In just about every episode, teaching supervisor Leon Hand interviews the line’s leaders and group customers, sharing instruction and selling strategies.
Hand suggests great podcast content material will come from “storytelling and not selling”. He describes: “Agents can use vacation spot highlights and their very own individual ordeals to explain to stories that are authentic and partaking. This excites curiosity and makes a pure desire to learn much more, which can, and frequently does, guide to a sale.”
For those people keen to sample the podcasting arena in advance of committing, consider getting a visitor if you can. Kate Holroyd, director of Strawberry Holidays, has spoken on many company-orientated podcasts.
The reveals give accessibility to possible new consumers and Holroyd highlights them to present consumers across her social channels. “If a podcast host is asking you about your expertise and business enterprise, then it builds authority,” she describes.
Holroyd makes use of online podcast neighborhood MatchMaker.fm to approach acceptable podcast hosts, endorsing her specialist subjects of journey and company. “Hosts certainly want to hear from professionals, and I strategy podcasters with the exact same audience as me. It does not price tag something and it’s an amazingly valuable use of my time.”
Buddying up with colleagues or other podcasters is a common plan (Image: Kate Oseen, Unsplash)
5 methods to… make podcasts work
Tremendous seem
Devote in a great microphone, as higher-good quality audio can help have interaction listeners, though weak seem deters people. Agents Holroyd and Rowe expended £20 and £40 respectively on theirs, and both of those obtain they provide spectacular recordings. For a expert mic, podcast qualified Gumbleton endorses the Rode PodMic microphone, which costs close to £80.
Maximise momentum
Not Just Travel’s Witt stresses the significance of maximising downloads on an episode’s launch working day, as ranking in the charts will tempt new listeners. When launching the initially episode, think about also obtaining others available. “By launching with primarily your fifth episode, men and women can also listen to the other people and get hooked.”
Tempting titles
Rowe makes use of artistic, descriptive episode titles, and a single of her most common is ‘Kayaking in glow worm caves: Adventures in New Zealand’. She generally posts backlinks to them in community forums and on social media in response to users’ queries about locations, and an eye-catching title allows really encourage clicks.
Tremendous sales
Gumbleton recommends conquering typical shopper objections to a form of holiday, desired destination or trip, by thoughtfully tackling them in an episode. He provides: “Then the upcoming time another person raises the objection, you can explain that you have spoken about it on your podcast, and ship them the backlink.”
Expect effort
Be ready to place in the hours. The Vacation Diaries’ Rubenstein says hit podcasts are the outcome of “intensive proactivity” in finding out how to generate them, securing company, reaching out to sponsors and publicising them. “A podcast merely will not turn into a results without having that degree of effort,” she says.
